Nuclear Security Culture: From Theory To Practice

Nuclear Security Culture: From Theory to Practice AbstractConsiderable attention has been devoted to the human dimension of nuclear security in recent years. Efforts in this area are typically framed in terms of security culture, a term intended to capture the shared nature of responsibility for nuclear security. However, there have been only very limited studies into the challenges faced in establishing effective nuclear security culture programmes in industry and how these can be overcome. This paper seeks to help fill this gap by providing new practical insights into how the human factor within security systems can be strengthened. It does this through an examination of security culture initiatives that have been launched by the global nuclear industry over the last ten years, with a particular focus on the United Kingdom. In contrast to other studies that have tended to focus on cases of ‘worst practice’ this paper seeks to provide insights into how successful nuclear security culture programmes can be developed, through overcoming different internal and external barriers. In doing so it identifies a number of common challenges, as well as essential elements that underpin successful programmes. These include high-level organisational buy-in and engagement, exploiting the overlap between safety culture and security culture, targeted awareness raising and training to different occupational groups and regular benchmarking.